| “ | One clean shot to the head and they're dead. | ” |
| —Morales before sniping a line of unfortunate enemies |
José Arcadio Morales (simply called Morales) is the hero of the Latin Confederation.
Description
José Arcadio Morales, or simply Morales, used to be part of an elite Cuban death squad, trained to silence political dissidents in the communist state. Due to his infallible aim and his unwavering loyalty to the Confederation, he quickly became one of the greatest assassins in South and Central America.
José's track record for completing seemingly impossible missions is the stuff of legends in the Americas. With a flair for the dramatic from his time as an executioner, and his provocative attitude, he has forged a cult of personality around himself. Important American politicians and military figureheads have been shot in broad daylight, even with a full military escort, in the states bordering Mexico, instilling fear in all for the man whose crosshair no one escapes.
Morales is equipped with an incendiary, armor piercing, sniper rifle, allowing him to eliminate all infantry in his line of fire with a single shot. When ordered to fire on a vehicle, Morales will kill the operator of the target, leaving the vehicle a sitting duck for Confederate troops to capture. In situations where the vehicle has no operator, he will simply damage the vehicle. An Engineer, Desperate Driver or a Foehn Huntress will be able to recapture the vehicle.
Morales has the authority to call in a tactical nuclear airstrike upon enemy structures as well, causing massive damage and localized radiation.
Overview
Acting as the only sniper unit available to the Soviet Union (with the exception of Reznov, who is not deployable under normal circumstances), Morales is a major threat to anything on the ground - he can systemically eliminate infantry, heavily damage/instantly neutralize vehicles, and level entire structures with his rather unorthodox arsenal of ranged weapons while leaving his opponents almost no chances of retaliation against the Latin Confederation's finest assassin.
Morales's primary weapon is a long-ranged Dragunov sniper rifle that fires incendiary rounds. His high-powered firearm can kill almost all infantry units with a single shot; only the heaviest infantry units such as Stalkers and Giantsbanes can hope to withstand multiple hits. What sets him different from the British Snipers and Epsilon's Viruses however is his ability to snipe multiple infantry units at once. Provided the Latin Confederation general can carefully assist Morales in picking out his targets, a single shot can set an entire line of infantry ablaze and dead almost instantly, making him a dreaded adversary that no infantry company will ever want to end up in his sights. To further exemplify his talents as a lethal sniper that knows almost no equal, Morales can even snipe the pilots Tier 1 and Tier 2 vehicles and render them useless. At that point, a Latin Confederation Engineer or Desperate Driver can then acquire the vehicle for their own use, although this can be exploited by enemy commanders/generals/proselytes as they too can send their own Engineers, Hijackers, or Huntresses to steal the vehicle for themselves. If the vehicle has no pilot or the pilot is immune to being sniped (such as Robot Tanks, Stingers, and Tier 3 vehicles), Morales will moderately damage the targeted vehicle in question.
His secondary weapon intended to deal with structures is a Laser Designator - upon marking a targeted structure, two X-MiGs will swoop in from off the map and proceed to bomb the quarry into oblivion with a tactical nuclear strike. Very few structures can hope to survive this assault, making Morales one of the best long-ranged structure eliminators available to the Latin Confederation. He is also trained to detect stealth over a moderate range.
Though Morales can easily bring ruin to an enemy over great distances, he still comes with his own weaknesses. For starters, he cannot target air units so anti-infantry aircraft like Invaders pose a strong threat to his welfare. His sniper rifle is a threat to almost every ground unit in the game, but it is greatly hampered by its rather slow firing rate - this means that while he can pick off lone infantry threats such as Attack Dogs/Spooks and Terror Drones and not have to worry too about being bitten or clawed to death by them, a large swarm of them can be problematic for him especially if they charge his position from multiple directions. The X-MiGs he calls in to perform airstrikes against enemy structures, while blisteringly fast, are still vulnerable to anti-aircraft weapons and if they get shot down, there will be a delay before another squadron can be called in. During the process of initiating an airstrike, he cannot defend himself with his sniper rifle which can potentially make him an easy picking for the enemy. Despite being more than a match for his closest equivalents in every aspect (Snipers and Viruses) he must be careful of not engaging superior numbers of them as he can still be overwhelmed if he isn't careful.
Morales cannot shoot or call in airstrikes from within the safety of a Catastrophe Tank either, meaning he must be on foot in order to contribute anything significant to a battle. Friendly infantry units fighting alongside him should also be wary of the fact that his sniper rifle can inflict friendly fire, as it inflicts damage to everything in the bullet's path.
Appearance
- Morales appears alongside Boris in Archetype to infiltrate a disused Tech Center in Ukraine and recover the bodies of Volkov and Chitzkoi as the Allies are withdrawing. In this mission, Morales has yet to be able to snipe vehicle drivers and cannot attack vehicles at all. In addition, like Boris, he cannot call in MiGs to attack buildings, as the Soviet air force has been dismantled following their loss at the Second World War. Once the two discover the Kamaz carrying the bodies, it must be driven by Morales to the extraction point while being escorted by Boris. Both heroes must survive throughout the mission.
- Morales appears in Happy Birthday to assassinate the U.S. president Michael Dugan in San Antonio, Texas. He is sent in a different direction from the main Confederation army. Once a Field Bureau is built, he'll fall under control of the player, who must escort him to a designated point near the airport in the city. Once Dugan arrives at the airport, he'll be assassinated by Morales, who will then be given a Stallion Transport to join forces with the main Confederation force. He must survive throughout the mission.
- Morales is the leader of one of the groups in Combustion, where Confederation forces try to recover a Napalm Storage and then defend it from the Allies. In this mission, he plays the vital role of depiloting Allied vehicles so that Confederation Engineers and Desperate Drivers can take control of them.
- In Unshakeable, Morales will arrive via paradrop to aid the Russian forces storming the KI Assembly in Okawa Falls, Japan once the collusion between China and the Pacific Front is exposed. He can die without compromising the mission.
- In Exist to Exit, Morales he is under pursuit by the PsiCorps and must lose them by destroying their Cloning Vats around Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, before making his escape. He must survive until the X-MiG comes to pick him up.
- Morales arrives in the later stages of Juggernaut, where he assists in the defense of the Congress of Singapore against Epsilon's massive assault. He can die without compromising the mission.
- At the beginning of Power Hunger, Morales is tasked with paving way for the Soviet invasion of Shanghai by destroying the EMP Control Stations and Nuclear Reactors around the city, before evacuating in a Borillo. He must survive until evacuated.
- Morales appears in Thread of Dread to assist the Confederation forces in seizing the last of China's experimental technologies. He can die without compromising the mission, and after he's 'killed' for the first time, he'll become available for training from the Barracks again after a few minutes, but this can only be done once. He is killed by the Chinese MIDAS warhead's detonation shortly after the Mainframe is captured.
Assessment
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Quotes
He is voiced by SenatorJohnDean.
When selected
- ¡Viva la Confederación!
- ¡El Coronel Morales!
- My duty is to the people.
- ¡Y tango preparando!
- Ready and waiting.
When ordered to move
- It shall be so.
- The revolution marches on.
- ¡Vamos, vamos!
- As fast as I can.
- En movimento. ("I'm moving." in Spanish)
- ¡Voy a estar alí!
When ordered to attack infantry and vehicles
- I miss my girl, but I won't miss you!
- Stop, drop and roll, gringo!
- My blood is boiling - theirs is leaking!
- ¡Adios, muchachos!
- One clean shot to the head and they're dead.
- ¡Parem!
When ordered to attack structures
- Fireworks for everyone!
- Leave only ruins!
- Pi-pi-pi-pi-pi-pi-pi-pi-(laughter)
- Raze it to the ground!
- ¡Me gusta!
When under fire
- It's getting hot in here!
- Tsk, nothing but cabrones!
- They don't scare me!
When promoted to heroic level
- ¡Vamos, vamos!
Gallery
Trivia
- His name is a reference to the character of the same name in the Polish 1999 film Kiler-ów 2-óch.[1]
- He is intended as the successor to Boris, the Soviet hero from vanilla Red Alert 2 Yuri's Revenge.
- His ability to kill the drivers of most vehicles, shoot through multiple infantry targets in a row, and call in airstrikes are conceptually similar to the talents of Natasha Volkova, the Russian commando unit from Red Alert 3. This ability is also similar to Jarmen Kell, the GLA hero from Generals.
- He is the second Soviet hero who was killed in action. The first was Boris, who was killed in Bleed Red.
- Some of his quotes don't respect Spanish grammar, as he's a bilingual character. The best example is "Y tango preparando" which makes no sense in his mother tongue (the correct way would be "Preparense para bailar!").
- Whenever he depilots a Draco Tank, another Draco Drone can still come out of it even though the drone itself is still attached to the Draco Tank model. This is likely an error.
See also
References
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Characters in bold are protagonists Characters in italics are heroes |
